{"id":297,"date":"2010-01-11T16:56:04","date_gmt":"2010-01-11T22:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/?p=297"},"modified":"2010-01-11T16:56:04","modified_gmt":"2010-01-11T22:56:04","slug":"prepare-for-the-seasons-of-deployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/prepare-for-the-seasons-of-deployment\/","title":{"rendered":"Prepare for the Seasons of Deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of a post ont he cycles of going through a deployment, from military wife Shannon. She blogs here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you have been through a deployment, you know one is not the same as the next. It’s almost like being pregnant and giving birth. While the overall situation is the same, 9 months of pregnancy and a baby at the end, each pregnancy and borth was very different.<\/p>\n

Several years ago when my husband went to a Special Operations Unit, I thought the idea was splendid. I romanced the idea of shorter deployments and the idea of never having to be apart for a year. I will admit that shorter deployments are nice. The count down isn\u2019t as long and I can see the end fairly quickly. The part I wasn\u2019t ready for was all the emotion that goes with deployments. It doesn\u2019t matter if the time apart is 3 months, 6 months, 9 months or a year, there are a ton of emotions to go with the deployment.<\/p>\n

When you first send your spouse off you have the initial \u201cOH MY GOSH HE\u2019S GONE\u201d Syndrome. I don\u2019t pick up anything he left out for at least a week. You have the tears and the days where you want to pull the covers over your head and tell the world to go away. Especially if the people that call or come by aren\u2019t military friends or family. It\u2019s been my experience that civilian friends and family don\u2019t understand our deployment life. They really don\u2019t understand the hide under the covers day. This phase of deployment also starts the point where I feel like I am holding my breath waiting for my husband to return.<\/p>\n

Once a few days have passed, I decide it\u2019s time to take deployment by the horns and conquer it. I am in \u201cCONQUER THE DEPLOYMENT\u201d Phase. At this point I decide to move furniture, by furniture, take classes, a new bible study, or the kids have a new adventure with sports or something of the sort. This is the part of deployment where people will look at you and simply say \u201cI don\u2019t know how you do it.\u201dWhile you appreciate the comment and smile you secretly want to dust their house or wash that mark off the wall.<\/p>\n

Then we get to about mid tour and I get to the phase of deployment called \u201cI DON\u2019T WANT TO DO THIS ANY MORE!\u201d During this junction in the road I have decided, for my husband, that he simply needs to leave the military as fast as possible when he gets back. Whatever way will get him out and we won\u2019t have to endure another deployment will work just fine for me. This part of deployment is frustrating for me. I want my husband home yesterday. I can\u2019t go back to stage one and eat Chips Ahoy and pull the covers over my head because of phase 2. I have signed us up for all of these new things that are taking place and are still in full swing.<\/p>\n

After a few weeks pass the frustration of phase 3 starts to leave. The return date gets closer and I start in on phase 4. \u201cI THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN.\u201d I begin to think I can finish this deployment a sane mama and wife. I begin to think that this deployment while difficult, didn\u2019t kill me and I am may be stronger for it. It\u2019s almost close enough to start counting down the days with all those cute countdown tickers in the signature lines. Now I start to rearrange furniture and cupboards, drawers, whatever I can get my hands on. My husband wouldn\u2019t feel like he was at home if he didn\u2019t have to relearn where I put everything while he was gone.<\/p>\n

Then we journey towards the phase of deployment called \u201cWELCOME HOME!\u201d My husband\u2019s return is so close I can taste it. I must buy anything and everything new. Bras, panties, clothes, get my hair done, clean the house, rearrange a few more things, and OH YA! clean the garage. During the phase 2 and 4 everything that left the living space of the house has made it to the garage and stayed there. I must clean the garage so my husband can walk through it. The kids and I start to make WELCOME HOME Banners and I will tell anyone that will sit still for 2 seconds that my husband is almost home.<\/p>\n

Now we get to the fun part. T-2 days and counting. I\u2019m sure I have never really slept at the T-2 phase. I keep thinking of things I need to do or should have done. I\u2019m to excited to sleep and start to think about which new outfit I will wear when I pick my husband up. I envision his face as he sees us. I can almost feel us holding each other tight. We are almost done with deployment.<\/p>\n

FINALLY! It\u2019s R DAY. Reunion Day. Today is the day I thought would never come. He is within my hands reach and we are in the same town, same space, same time zone and will be together again. I no longer have to be a single parent or great fixer of all things. I no longer have to be macho mom. I can just be mom. When I finally get to hug my husband I feel like I can breathe again. I can exhale and relax just a little bit. I can lay in the bed without extra pillows and fall asleep with my head on my husband\u2019s chest. Our home is our home again.(with exception to the things my husband has moved because he wasn\u2019t sure where they went)<\/p>\n

Now just like giving birth you forget about how much deployment hurts. The longer my husband is home the more I start to think that if we have to do deployment again we will be okay. The deployment was hard but we grew as parents, a married couple and individuals. While I\u2019m not hoping deployment comes knocking I know we would get through it again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part of a post ont he cycles of going through a deployment, from military wife Shannon. She blogs here. If you have been through a deployment, you know one is not the same as the next. It’s almost like being pregnant and giving birth. While the overall situation is the same, 9 months […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,21,11,15],"tags":[39,50,219],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civilian-support","category-one-day-at-a-time","category-pre-deployment","category-relationship-changes","tag-deployment","tag-military-marriage","tag-pre-deployment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myheroesathome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}